This lesson is designed to help you learn the eight essential open guitar chords needed to play songs on the guitar right away. Anyone can learn and play these chords. You do not need to memorize the encyclopedia of chords which can be very intimidating – just focus on these eight simple chords. But if you need an overview of the big picture for reference, see All Guitar String Notes
Many people are overwhelmed with the complexities of music theory. That is one of the reasons most guitars stay in some backroom collecting dust. When you start out learning simple chords and simple but great songs, you learn fast and have fun playing.
Ok -it’s time to start playing the guitar! There has never been a better time to learn. If you have thinking about it and considering it – right now is the time.
And here is the thing – it is not all that hard to learn! If you have the right motivation and discipline to take time out to practice, you can be playing songs on the guitar in 30 to 60 days!
My goal is to help you get past that first step in your guitar playing. The first step is where you want a guitar, or you have a guitar (maybe someone loaned you one), and you want to become a “rock star”, but you have never played seriously. But now you are ready to start playing.
I have taught many people how to get to the first and second levels of playing guitar – family, friends, and friends of friends – all for free. However, once you decide to become a serious guitar player, I hand off to someone who can guide and teach at the highest level. I know some really good teachers who can do that – online and offline.
I have watched friends, family, students, young and old pick up the guitar for the first time, and in a matter of months, they were playing songs and sounding good on the guitar. Some of them, including my son, got really good.
Granted, all of these people practiced a lot.
The best part is that learning to play guitar is something you can start at any age, at any time in your life, and get good at it – fast. It does not matter how old you are – it doesn’t. Unlike sports, you will have the skill for the rest of your life.
Start with these eight basic chords and work your way through the many variations.
If you practice these every day for 30 minutes (minimum) to an hour for 30 straight days, you will get good. You will be able to play and transition through these chords! If you can play these, you will be able to play many, many songs on the guitar.
Open Chord vs Bar Chord (or Barre Chord)
An open chord is where at least one string is not muted or fretted by a finger when holding the chord on the fretboard. These are the easiest, least tiring chords to play.
This is in contrast to a bar chord where your 1st finger is used to hold down all of the strings on the fretboard and the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th fingers are used to hold the chord. This takes more effort and training. Barre chords are more advanced but are very important to learn. We will learn these when we get to the B major chords and F chords.
For example, see the figure below. The figure on the left is the A major open chord, and the figure on the right is the A major barre chord. They are both A major chords with the root note of the chord being the A note. The difference is that they are played in different positions on the neck of the guitar.
When you play these, they sound the same. However, they each have a special purpose in a song. Some guitarists like the power of the barre chord and others like to play open chords. Which one you play depends on the purpose and the transition to other chords in the song.
This lesson will focus on open chords!
The Eight Most Important (Easy) Open Guitar Chords
The chords that we will be learning and using to play our first songs are:
- A major or A
- A minor or Am
- C major or C
- D major or D
- D minor or Dm
- E major or E
- E minor or Em
- G major or G
These are the most important chord shapes to play on the guitar and ones that you will use often. We call these the eight master chord shapes.
What is great about learning these is that you will be able to play many songs with them. Also, there are many variations of these chords. When you learn and master these chords, it is easy to transition to a variation. For example, the Dsus4 chord (not complicated) is a slight variation of the D major chord and is commonly played with the D chord.
The same can be said for the Asus4 chord. This chord is a very slight variation of the A major chord and is commonly played with the A chord. They are easy variations but you sound like a seasoned pro when you play them.
Yes, some chords are missing from this list – namely B (B major), Bm (B minor), F (F major), Fm (F minor), Cm (C minor), and Gm (G minor.) These chords are slightly more complex as they require a barre chord or more stretching of the hand. We will come back to these in another lesson.
The E Major Chord
We will start with what is arguably the most common chord – the E chord. Granted, most guitarists play this in different ways, but it is one of the most widely used chords in music. It has a deep rich sound when played as an open chord.
Below is the chord chart and tab for the E Chord. The chord chart shows where the fingers need to be placed on the fretboard to play this chord. We covered this in the section on how to hold a chord.
The notes of the E chord are E, B, and G# (G Sharp). Yes – there are only three notes in the open chord! Most new guitarists are surprised by this – most chords have only three notes.
An open chord is made up of the 1st, 3rd, and 5th notes of the scale. The name is defined by the root note. In this case, the first string in the chord (Open E) is the root note.
How Do you Play the E chord on Guitar?
Place your first finger on the third string on the first fret of the guitar. Now place your second finger on the fifth string, second fret. Place your third finger on the fourth string of the second fret. See the figure below. Your hand should look like the picture below. Now, just strum down on the strings with your right hand.
There are no muted strings, so when you play E major, you will strum across all of the strings. You will hear a nice full sound when you strum this with the bottom E as the open string, and then one octave up E note on the third string second fret.
This has a happy, positive sound to it – as do all major chords.
Practice strumming with a simple down, down, down, down strumming pattern. Do not concern yourself with your rhythm right now – that will come. Work on holding the chord and building strength in your fret hand.
The A Major Chord
Now let’s move to the A major chord- or the A chord. The A chord is defined by the root note of the chord, which is the open A string.
The notes of the A chord are A, E, and C# (C sharp). If you look at the diagram below carefully, you will notice that both the low E string (sixth string) is muted. You do not play this string when you strum the chord.
You will learn to control your strumming so that you do not play this string. I can say that many guitarists still hit the low E string when they play! It does sound a little off, but that is OK – the guitar police will not come to your door! However, the correct method is to mute the low E string. See also A Major Scale Guitar for a comparison between the A Chord and the A Major Scale
How Do You Play the A chord on guitar?
You will use your second, third, and fourth fingers to hold this – this is the most common way to play the chord. Like most chords, you can play these multiple ways. For example, you will see guitarists hold all three strings with their first finger in a barre chord fashion. 
This is a great way to play the chord and provides many options when playing. However, we will start with the most common way.
Place your second finger on the fourth string second fret; place your third finger on the third string, second fret, and then place your fourth finger on the second string, second fret. All of your fingers will be on the same fret and will look like a straight line although they will be at a slight slant.
Make sure all of your fingers are on the second fret. When you are first working with this chord, it is easy for your fourth finger to sneak down to the third fret or be on top of the fret. They should all be on the same fret.
See the above figure for how to hold the A chord.
Bend your fingers so that the tip of each finger is on the string and you are not muting any string.
The D Major Chord
Many argue that the D chord is the most common chord of them all. The reason is that it is very easy to play and you can move the shape up and down the neck of the guitar easily. Also, there are many great sounding variations of D.
Dsus4 is an easy variation that is played (very) often with D. We will go into this chord later, but it is simply adding the fourth finger to the third fret, first string.
Look at the diagram below. D has a shape that looks like a triangle. This is an easy way to remember how to play the chord!
The notes are A, D, and F#, with the low E string muted. The root note is the D note. Again, look at how many notes there are in this chord – three. These are the 1st, 3rd, and 5th intervals of the D scale. (D, F#, A).
How Do you Play the D chord on Guitar?
Place your first finger on the second fret, third-string; place your second finger on the second fret, first string, and place your third finger on the third fret, second string. Once you have your fingers holding the chord as shown in the illustration below, play this by strumming down on the strings.
Now, work on these three chords; E, A, and D. Work on transitioning from E to A, A to D, and then D to E. You will get the hang of it – just keep working at it!
Easy Three Chord Songs with E, A, and D Chords
Are you ready to play a song with the three chords you have learned? Below are fun songs to play. The first one on the list is one of the first songs I learned a long, (long!) time ago, and one of the first I teach students.
- Wild Thing! – A, D, E. That’s it – and no fancy strumming.
- You are my Sunshine – A, D, E. Johnny Cash version in the key of A.
- Glory Days – A, D, E
- Louie, Louie – A, D, E
- Folsom Prison Blues – A, D, E
- Sweet Caroline (Capo 2nd Fret) – A, D, E
The C Major Chord
Ok, we are going to make you work a little harder now with the C chord. You will need to stretch your fingers more on this.
Once you are comfortable with this chord, you can add several easy variations. Also, it is much easier to transition to learning the F chord after mastering the C chord.
The notes of the C chord are C, E, and G with the root note being the C note. The sixth string (low E) is muted on this chord, with the C note being the root note. So when you are strumming this chord, you will strum all of the strings except the low E string.
It just takes a little practice!
How Do you Play the C chord on Guitar?
To play the C chord, place your first finger on the second string, first fret; place your second finger on the fourth string, second fret, and then place your third finger on the fifth string, third fret.
This finger placement can be more difficult. You will need to keep the tips of your fingers on the fretboard without muting the other strings – especially the fourth string (G). Many new guitarists have trouble with this.
Keep a nice arch on your fingers and adjust your hand position to get a nice clean sound. By now, you should be developing some callouses on the tips of your fingers so that it is easier to hold the chord.
Continue using a simple down, down, down, down strumming pattern just to get the feel of holding and playing the chord.
The G Major Chord
We finish out with this round of easy chords with the G major chord. The notes of G major are, G, B, and D with the root note being G. As you see the pattern with all of these chords – there are only three notes!
There are no muted strings, so strum all the way through all of the strings. See also G Major Scale Guitar for a comparison between G Chord and G Major Scale
How Do you Play the G chord on Guitar?
To play the G chord, place your first finger on the fifth string of the second fret; place your second finger on the sixth string (low E) of the third fret, and then stretch your third finger to the first string (high E) the third fret.
Watch for muting the second string with your second finger – arch your finger high enough to avoid muting any strings. Now strum the chord once again using down, down, down, down strums to get the hang of playing the chord.
More easy chord songs with C Major and G Major Chords
Below are more songs you can work on to build your guitar playing skills. These are nice easy songs and they incorporate the chords that you have already learned. Learn the song first, and then play along with the song to build your strumming skills. It will take practice to master the chord changes, but you will catch on.
- Bad Moon Rising – A, D, G
- Achy Breaky Heart – C, G
- Sweet Home Alabama – C, D, G
- Stuck in the Middle with You – A, D, E, G
- Barbara Ann – A, D, G
- Bye, Bye Love – A, C, D, G
- Can’t You See – D, C, E
The E Minor Chord
The notes of the E minor (Em) chord are E, G, and B. Can you guess what makes this a “minor” chord? By moving the 3rd note of the scale down a half step, that is G# to G, you have a minor chord! This is known as the “flat third”
How Do you Play the Em chord on Guitar?
For the Em chord, we simply remove the first finger from the E chord shape. Place your second finger on the fifth string, second fret, and then place your third finger on the fourth string of the second fret. See the figure below. Your hand should look like the picture below. Now, just strum down on the strings with your right hand.
The hallmark of the minor chord is that it has a sad, or mysterious sound to it. Even though we just removed our first finger, this has a completely different sound than E major.
The A Minor Chord
Just like the Em chord, A minor (Am) takes the third note of the scale and moves down a half step (flat third). The notes of Am are A, C, and E.
The A minor chord looks just like the E chord, but shifted down one string – the fingering is the same. If you have memorized the E chord, this will be an easy chord to play.
How Do you Play the Am chord on Guitar?
Place your first finger on the second string, first fret; the second finger on the fourth string, second fret, and the third finger on the third string second fret (as shown in the picture below).
The D Minor Chord
We finish up our list of the eight most essential chords with D minor (Dm). To get the minor chord of D, once again, we move the 3rd note of the scale down a one-half step from F# to F. The notes of the Dm chord are D, F, and A.
How Do you Play the Dm chord on Guitar?
Place your first finger on the first string, first fret; place your second finger on the third string second fret and place your third finger on the second string, third fret.
This is a little harder to play, so you will need to practice stretching your fingers to play this. The sixth string (low E) is muted, so when your strum the chord, only strum from the A string (fifth string) down to the first string.
This is one of the harder chords to play of the “easy chords”. Most new guitar players accidentally mute the fifth string with their second finger when they first play the chord. I have seen guitarists substitute their fourth finger for the third – although this is not recommended.
Easy Chord Songs with Em, Am, and Dm
- Brown Eyed Girl – G, C, D, Em
- Ain’t no Sunshine – Am, Dm, Em, G (A little more practice!)
- Hey Soul Sister – G, D, Em, C
- Hello (Adele) – Em, C, G, D
- Marry You – D, Em, G
- Run Around – G, C, Am D
- Fire On The Mountain – Em, C, G, D, Am
With all of these chords, you just need to practice and train your fingers. You will build up the coordination, strength, and finger memorization to glide through each of these chords effortlessly. That is when it becomes really fun! Playing the guitar is a lot of fun – especially when you are playing with friends who also love to play guitar.
Remember – everyone struggles at first. Every great guitar player started as a beginner having problems holding chords, strumming chords, and playing notes. The difference is how much you want to learn and the amount of time you spend practicing.
I have seen guitar students go from struggling big time to become good in less than a year. Each one practiced and played along to songs learning the different techniques and styles.
They also honed their skills with more advanced teachers. My focus is on helping the beginner or intermediate guitar player learn to love to play the guitar and develop a passion for playing without the pressure to be perfect. There is a place for perfection, but not when you are first learning.
If you are looking to get to the next level, I have several friends that I can hook you up with to help you become that expert. For now, keep learning and practicing.
Our next lesson is on the B Guitar Chord and F Chord.